In the foregoing message we pointed out that forbearance and anxiety represent two kinds of life, that forbearance comes from God and anxiety comes from Satan, and that forbearance and anxiety cannot coexist. Furthermore, we saw that to live Christ as our forbearance is to have a life free from anxiety. Now in this message we shall consider some further matters related to a life full of forbearance but without anxiety.
If we live Christ, we are truly one with the Lord. In 4:4 Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” To rejoice in the Lord is to be one with Him. When we are one with the Lord, we are not anxious about anything, for we are not only under the Lord’s sovereign hand, but we are in the Lord Himself. If we live this kind of life, how could we be anxious? The more we practice being one with the Lord, the more we shall realize that His destiny is our destiny. If He wants us to stay on earth for a longer period of time, He will keep us alive. But if it is His desire that we go to Him, He will take us to Himself. Since everything depends on His will and since we are one with Him in a practical way, there is no reason for us to be anxious.
When we are separated from the Lord, we are anxious about everything. Everything in human life gives rise to anxiety. But when we are one with the Lord, we are separated from the natural human life and its anxiety. If we would make our forbearance known to all men and not be anxious in anything, we need to practice being one with the Lord. This is the reason Paul charges us to rejoice in the Lord before he exhorts us to make known our forbearance.
When I had a problem with my health a few months ago, I was bothered. One day the Lord checked with me and asked me if I was one with Him. When I said that I was one with Him, it was as if He said, “Since you are one with Me, you should not be anxious about your health.”
We become anxious whenever we are not one with the Lord in a practical way. Doctrinally speaking, we are always one with Him. However, quite often we are not one with Him in practice. We may give messages to the saints, telling them that we are one spirit with the Lord. But in our daily living we need to be tested to see if we have the actual experience. If we are one with the Lord actually and practically, we shall not be anxious.
Even though Paul was a prisoner in Rome, he was not anxious about anything, because he was one with the Lord actually, practically, and thoroughly. He could even say that to die was better than to live. Paul was so one with the Lord that he knew that the Lord was his destiny. Not only was Paul’s destiny in the hand of the Lord—his destiny was the Lord Himself. Because Paul was one with the Lord, he knew that Satan could not do anything to him, even though he might send a messenger, a thorn in the flesh, to buffet him. Paul was not worried about what Satan might do, for the Lord was his destiny.